


Monsters

by LilGreenAgamede



Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), Booster Gold (Comics), DCU
Genre: Born from the depths of the Boostle Discord, Gen, Hair Pulling, M/M, OCD, Projecting my own problems on my favourite characters, Ted is alive, Trichotillomania
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 08:39:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12207696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilGreenAgamede/pseuds/LilGreenAgamede
Summary: Booster's fought his own monsters and demons but the worst one he's ever faced is himself.  Ted begins to notice.





	Monsters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meesamegara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meesamegara/gifts).



> So Meesa from the Boostle discord and I were talking about Trich, and realized we both have it and kinda had a nice bonding talk about it. Then Booster came up in the discussion and the thinning of his hair gag that was thrown around in Vol 2 and just... we were like, BUT WHAT IF?????? And then this happened. 
> 
> It actually took a lot to write this???? I might expand on it but I just wanted to get it out for now. It turned into something very personal. 
> 
> No beta atm but I'm open to critique. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It wasn’t something Ted really noticed at first. There were more pressing issues to tend to at that given moment, such as the fact that Ted was no longer deceased and that time had continued to pass after his own… well, passing. He had a lot of catching up to do. The news, social trends, pop culture, everything with the hero community, tech, etc. It took a guy a while to slow down and start to finally live in the present and notice the little things. Oh, he and Booster had definitely started sleeping together a few months after his resurrection, but had they had time to talk about it? No, not really. Ted had his homework and Booster had to protect the timestream.

Ted was extremely relieved when he deemed himself “caught up” in the times. Relieved, and then bored. He had to actually wait for new things to happen and it wasn’t like Rip and Booster were letting him anywhere near the time sphere just to speed things up a little. 

Rani helped a little. Ted was enamored with the little girl Booster had picked up during his misadventures. She was cute but more importantly, she was extremely smart, keeping pace with Ted as he chattered out formulas and theories and engineering concepts that cluttered his brain. She wasn’t quite ready to understand how to apply said concepts and theories, but explaining everything made for good conversation. 

As far as a social, gossipy friend went, the closest person Ted could unwind with was Michelle. While she was also someone out of their own time, she caught up on trends and news much faster than Ted had, and it was nice confirming what he’d been reading and watching about. Plus, she had great stories from Booster’s younger…. MUCH younger years. It made for good prank fodder and neither told the time travelling hero what was shared. 

One thing in particular, however, stuck with Ted. After story-swapping with Michelle for a few hours, he took a social cool-down in his room, lying back on the rickety mattress and staring up at the ceiling covered with new Bug designs. Shell had shared that her brother used to be a really bad nail biter. There were a few instances throughout the Blue and Gold friendship, when Ted thought back hard on it, where he did notice Booster start to gnaw on a finger in stress. It never went too far before his friend caught himself and put his hands to his side. They were always very twitchy afterwards, sometimes to the point where Boost just HAD to touch Ted in someway. It was never naughty and both Booster and Ted were touchy feely people in general, so Ted had gone along with it. Plus it always felt nice when Boost ran his hands through his hair, slowly massaging his scalp… 

The memories made Ted smile as he rolled off the bed and stared into a nearby mirror. He ran his own fingers through his hair and frowned. Since he’d been back, Booster hadn’t even gotten near his head. Sometimes, Ted would feel callous hands start at his neck, but just when he’d start to relax in anticipation for the habit, the hands would disappear almost as quickly as they came. It was a little weird, even for Booster, and if Ted was starting to notice the oddity of it, then something had to be wrong. He waited until Booster returned from his latest mission, after cuddling on the sofa and continuing their Bojack marathon. Booster was quiet the entire time, but his hands made plenty of noise as they tapped on Ted’s lap to the point of being obnoxious. Ted narrowed his eyes, focusing in on the calloused fingers with nails bitten down past the skin. He snatched at Booster’s hand, rubbing circles in the skin while he reached up with the hand holding the remote and paused Netflix. Tired and concerned eyes looked up at Booster’s maskless face. 

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Ted said, now clasping Booster’s hand with both of his. “Something’s up, and you’re stressing about it, and don’t think I haven’t noticed.” 

Booster looked away, a slight pink dusting his cheeks. Ted had a feeling deep in his gut it wasn’t from puppy-love embarrassment. 

“Nothing’s wrong I’m just… working on breaking some bad habits,” Booster grunted, fully turning around, whipping his hand out of Ted’s, and burying both hands and face in the side of the couch. 

Ted frowned. This didn’t seem like it had anything to do with the time travel business Rip sent his friend on, so it wasn’t like Booster couldn’t talk about what was going on. Did he just not want to? What did he mean by ‘habits’? 

“Come on buddy,” Ted said, crawling over on top of the other. “You’ve been biting your nails pretty hard and you’ve been acting off. And now that I think really hard back on it, this has been going on since I ‘got back’.” He paused, then slowly began to massage circles onto Booster’s scalp. “You can talk to me, you know?” 

Booster whined at the contact, a full body shiver running through him. “It’s… It’s just. A thing.” 

“A thing?” Ted was skeptical and made no effort to hide the dry tone in his voice. Then his fingers brushed over… something. His rubbing took a pause. Booster’s breath hitched and he started trying to wriggle out from under Ted. 

“Hold on buddy let me take a look. If this is about your balding spot, it happens to us guys here in the past and it’ll probably be something that’ll continue until like 3000 or someth- oh?” 

Ted managed to hold his friend steady and down with his thighs and then began to pick through Booster’s golden locks. He wasn’t expecting what he found. 

Scabs. Lots of them. Hair pores that were red and tinged with puss. Tiny little hairs, especially in the thin area, struggling to grow. It was a mess up there. This wasn’t age-related balding at all, Ted realized with dread. This was something else entirely. 

The words that came out of his mouth were soft as he loosened his body and began to rub Booster’s head again. “I’m not going to judge you, ya know. You remember me during my fat days. Is this… something like that?” 

Booster grunted, finally pushing up and turning back to face Ted. “Kinda? I guess?” he croaked. He still wasn’t looking at Ted and his face now lobster red. “Um… well… in the future, mental illness is still a thing…” 

Ted nodded along. He figured, especially after witnessing bouts of depression from his time-travelling friend-lover-person. Booster continued. 

“I was doing some looking into it, and it’s not really well studied at all in this time period, and it’s pretty difficult to treat still in my time.” 

A reassuring smile was offered and Booster took another deep breath. “It’s… one of the harder to treat forms of OCD. In this time it’s called trichotillomania.” 

Ted cocked his head, putting the roots of the words together. “Compulsive hair pulling?” He thought on it, and when Booster grunted, it dawned on him. “Wait… you’ve been doing this to yourself?” 

He didn’t think it was possible, but Booster turned even redder. “It’s.. I can’t. I can’t help it Teddy. I space out and then… the pulling just starts and I stop focusing on all the shit in my life and just… the chemical rush that comes with it.” 

“It was an escape,” Ted murmured. He leaned down and kissed Booster on the forehead. “Does this have to do with the not touching my head?” 

Booster nodded. “I’m really scared. Scared that I’ll do something…” He twisted and locked lips with Ted for a brief moment. “I’m okay with damaging myself. I couldn’t.... Live with myself… if I did something to someone else because of this… compulsion. Especially you.” 

Ted breathed him in. “What can I do to help?” It was the right question to ask, he knew. It put him into the situation, made him a part of it. Booster couldn’t wiggle out of it. His lover pursed his lips. “I dunno, Ted.” His hands began to wander down Ted’s body. “Can I have a raincheck?” 

With yet another sigh, Ted melted. “I’m not going to forget this just because we’re about to do the do, Michael. But yeah, think about it, let me know. I worry about you and-” He leaned down and pecked Booster on the nose. “I love you. Ahhhh, there’s that toothpaste commercial smile.” 

Booster couldn’t help his grin as he bit his bottom lip. “Thanks you being cool, ya know. It’s not something I really understand, and it’s not something other people really understand.” 

“Yet. People don’t understand yet.” Ted’s shirt was unbuttoned now. “Who knows, maybe Kord Industries will make a comeback and there’ll be a focus on stuff like this.” Booster’s pants hit the floor. “You’re the most accommodating boyfriend ever.” 

“Oh, so we’re boyfriends now?” Ted’s shirt joined Booster’s pants. 

“BOYFRIENDS?” 

Ted sent out a thank you to whatever deity was listening for his amazing reflexes. In under a second, he and Booster were burritoed under a throw that’d been on the back of the sofa. “Hey Rani,” he said with a strained smile. “Why aren’t you in bed?” 

“Monsters,” the little girl said, plopping down on what had been declared as “her chair”. “Can’t sleep.” 

Ted was stealthily grabbing his shirt off the ground with his toes and slipping it back on. He crawled out from under the blanket, handed Booster his pants as subtly as he could, and headed over to Rani. 

“What type of monsters?” he asked, picking up a stray stuffed rabbit and handing it to her. “Nothing ol’ Blue and Gold can’t handle, right?” 

Rani smiled. “Course not! That’s why I’m going to hang out with you guys. Cuz you beat all the monsters.” 

Booster, now fully clothed again, joined them and kissed the top of her head. “No monsters are gonna touch you hon.” His hand strayed up to head, but stopped as Ted gently took it and brought his wrist up to his lips, then threaded their fingers together. 

And nothing is going to touch either of us. 

It was unspoken, but understood by both as Rani curled up with them and began to doze. Booster drifted off not soon after. Ted looked down at his little family and smiled. He leaned over Booster and kissed the thinning spot. There was a lot of stuff to work through, the two of them, but they’d get through it. If not for themselves, then for Rani. As he began to fall into the land of dreams, Ted made a mental note to look more into Trichotillomania and see what he could build. He was here now. He could help, he could understand, and most importantly, he could love. And love was what needed most.


End file.
